A few years ago, 2004 precisely, one of my colleagues
at the time asked me to help her bear a child and that she would pay me one
million naira. If you are wondering what that meant, she wanted me to be a
surrogate for her. She had been married for about seven years without any child
and had done a series of IVF without any success.
Hmnnn…when she asked me then, I was tempted (one
million naira no be beans abeg…Lol) but I now sat down to think of all the
implications. How do I carry a baby inside me for nine months and after that
just hand over the baby to someone else? Won’t I have any attachment or bond to
that child? Another thing that also crossed my mind was also the various issues
that come with pregnancy like morning sickness which in my previous pregnancy
was morning, afternoon and night sickness!!!
Anyway I told her I couldn’t and she was very sad
but it was really a lot for me to handle psychologically at that time ,unfortunately
she still doesn’t have any children till now but I know nothing is impossible
with God.
Why I am rambling on about this is because I read
in the papers that former Miss Nigeria, Nike Oshinowo now has twins (a boy and
a girl) via a surrogate in the US. Forty eight year old Nike Oshinowo decided
to take this route because she has endometriosis which makes having a period
hell and getting pregnant even worse.…..so this was exactly what my friend
wanted me to do for her years back. At that time I never even knew what
surrogacy was all about.
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| Nike Osinowo |
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| Nike Osinowo and twins |
A surrogate is someone who carries a pregnancy
for intended parents and could be in two ways either via a baby created through
IVF and transferred into that person or the traditional way when in plain English…there
is direct sexual intercourse. An instance is in the biblical story of Sarah and
Abraham when she told her maid Hagar to sleep with Abraham so he could
impregnate her and Sarah would raise the child and that was how Ishmael was
born.
I even read on the internet that in India this is
a big business as the Indian surrogates are paid as much as $5,000dollars to
have other people’s children and they do this legally with documents signed and
lawyers involved. Even here in Nigeria it is being done illegally where young
girls are kept and impregnated and their babies are sold off to the highest
bidder although the government is now clamping down hard on these people.
Surrogacy has become a very popular route for
couples with infertility issues and now that I have a better understanding of what
it entails I cannot say I fault it in anyway as long as it is done in a legal
manner. Would I be able to be a surrogate for someone now is still a question I
can’t honestly answer but would you????
Cant go thru d stress of pregnancy anymore abeg
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